Story of the War in South Africa | Page 2

at the Far East, more {p.004} especially at what were then
comprehensively called the Spice Islands--the Moluccas. They also felt
the need of a half-way station. For this the Cape of Good Hope, with
the adjacent bays--Table Bay and False Bay--presented advantages; for
though not perfectly safe anchorages at all seasons, the voyage to the
islands is more expeditiously and healthfully made by starting from,
and keeping in, a far southern latitude, than by proceeding along the
East African coast.
In 1652 the Dutch settled at the Cape, and gradually extended their
holding to the eastward as far as the Great Fish River. A generation
later, in 1686, the population received an accession of French
Protestant refugees, leaving their country upon the revocation of the
Edict of Nantes. From these descended the late General Joubert,
Commander-in-Chief of the Transvaal forces at the opening of
hostilities. The administration of the colony by the Dutch East India
Company being both arbitrary and meddlesome, some of the more
independent spirits withdrew from the coast and moved inland, behind
the difficult {p.005} mountain ranges that separate the narrow strip of
sea-coast from the high table-lands of the interior.
In 1795 local dissatisfaction and the spread of French revolutionary
principles led to a revolt of the colonists, and Holland passing at that
time into alliance with France, the Cape was seized by a British naval
and military expedition. At the Peace of Amiens in 1802 it was restored
to Holland; but in the next war it was again taken by the British, in
1806, and at the Peace of 1814 was confirmed in their possession.
The population remained Dutch in blood and in tradition; but
subsequent accessions of English immigrants have established in Cape
Colony itself an approach to equilibrium between the two races, to
which has also contributed a series of emigrations to the interior by the
Dutch farmers, dissatisfied with various incidents of British rule. Into

the merits of these differences we have neither space nor occasion to
go.
In 1836, immediately prior to the largest of these movements, known as
the Great Trek, the British Government, by Act, extended its claim
{p.006} of control over all South Africa, south of 25°, the latitude of
Delagoa Bay; and the Boer emigrants were warned that in entering that
region they remained under British authority, unless they passed on
into the Portuguese dominion. From this Trek resulted directly, in the
course of years, the two Boer states, the Orange Free State and the
South African Republic (commonly called the Transvaal); and also,
indirectly, the easternmost British colony in South Africa, Natal, in
which the English element is decisively preponderant.
The mention of this migration leads naturally and immediately to a
summary of the physical conditions of the country, by which, as well as
by derivation of blood, the apartness of the two races has been
emphasized. Between the narrow margin of land belonging, as it were,
to the sea, and the high interior plateau, there runs from the extreme
west of the British dominions a chain of lofty mountains, parallel,
roughly, to the coastline, and terminating only when abreast of Delagoa
Bay. These reach an elevation of from six to eight thousand feet, and in
places on the border between {p.007} Natal and Basutoland heights of
eleven thousand are attained. On the side toward the sea the ascent is
comparatively rapid and difficult, though often broken into precipitous
terraces. Inland the descent is less, and more regular, issuing in a
plateau from three to five thousand feet above the sea, and presenting
almost throughout a comparatively level or undulating surface that
offers no serious difficulty to transit.
The territory of the Orange Free State and of the Transvaal lies wholly
within this table-land. In this region, and throughout Africa south of
25°, there are river beds, but no navigable rivers. The country is
generally treeless, and there is a great deficiency of steady natural
water supply. During the rainy season, from October to March, the
naked ground fails to retard the running off of the waters, which
therefore escape rapidly by the rivers, swelling them to momentary

torrents that quickly and fruitlessly subside. During the long dry season
the exposed herbage dries to the roots.
From these conditions it results that not only is agriculture generally
impracticable, economically, but {p.008} that cattle and sheep, the
chief wealth of the Boer farmers, require an unusual proportion of
ground per head for pasture; and the mobility of bodies of horsemen,
expecting to subsist their beasts upon local pasturage, is greatly
affected by the seasons--an important military consideration. The large
holdings introduce large spaces between the holders, who dwell
therefore alone, each man with his family. So it has come to pass that
the descendants of one of the most